Nickel cobalt oxide/carbon nanotubes hybrid as a high-performance electrocatalyst for metal/air battery

High-performance, low cost catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) remains a big challenge. Herein, nanostructured NiCo2O4/CNTs hybrid was proposed as a high-performance catalyst for metal/air battery for the first time. The well-formed NiCo2O4/CNTs hybrid was studied by steady-state linear polarization curves and galvanostatic discharge curves in comparison with CNTs-free NiCo2O4 and commercial carbon-supported Pt. Because of the synergistic effect, NiCo2O4/CNTs hybrid exhibited significant improvement of catalytic performance in comparison with NiCo2O4 or CNTs alone, even outperforming Pt/C hybrid in ORR process. In addition, the benefits of Ni incorporation were demonstrated by the improved catalytic performance of NiCo2O4/CNTs compared to Co3O4/CNTs, which should be attributed to improved electrical conductivity and new, highly efficient, active sites created by Ni cation incorporation into the spinel structure. NiCo2O4/CNTs hybrid could be used as a promising catalyst for high power metal/air battery.